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NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman
For planning purposes: June 8, 2007
Contact: Jodi Seth 202-225-5735
MEDIA ADVISORY:
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Hearing on Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing
on Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House
Office Building. The hearing is entitled Poisoned Patriots:
Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune.
The purpose of this hearing is to examine issues arising from the
extensive, high-level contamination of drinking water at U.S. Marine
Corps Base Camp Lejeune. This is the first of a series of hearings the
Subcommittee plans to hold on environmental problems at Department of
Defense (DOD) facilities.
The hearing will include testimony from former Marine Corps residents
of Camp Lejeune who, along with their families, drank the contaminated
water, cooked their food in it, and bathed in it. The Subcommittee
will also receive testimony from the Government agencies involved in
dealing with the contamination, assessing the adverse health effects,
and investigating allegations of criminal violations of Federal law,
including the Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy, ATSDR, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Government
Accountability Office (GAO).
WITNESS LIST
Panel I
Mr. Jerome Ensminger
North Carolina
Dr. Mike Gros
Texas
Mr. Jeff Byron
Ohio
Panel II
United States Marine Corps
Major General Robert C. Dickerson, Jr.
Commanding General
Accompanied by Ms. Kelly A. Dreyer
Environmental Restoration Program Manager
United States Navy
Ms. Pat Leonard
Director
Office of The Judge Advocate General
Claims, Investigations, & Tort Litigation (Code 15)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Department of Health and Human Services
Thomas Sinks, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
National Center for Environmental Health/ATSDR
Accompanied by Frank Bove, Sc.D.
Senior Epidimiologist
and
Morris Maslia, P.E.
Environmental Engineer
According to the Pottstown Mercury (PA), the following Pennsylvania lawmakers have joined the fight to apply EPA’s new solvent emissions regulations to the narrow tube industry (all have written letters criticizing the exemption, all were reportedly on a conference call with EPA pressing this issue on Friday):
This was announced just last Friday on the PR Newswire:
Governor Edward G.
Rendell announced today that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection has filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging the Environmental
Protection Agency’s National Air Emissions Standards on hazardous air
pollutants halogenated solvent cleaning[sic].
[...]
“I believe the EPA did not adequately consider public health risks when establishing new air emissions standards for TCE, nor did they take into account the reasonable, economically-feasible and expedient measures that are available to the narrow tube industry to reduce emissions,” said Governor Rendell, noting his reason for directing DEP to challenge this action. “Exempting these industries from more stringent emission standards fails to protect the well-being of our people, our communities and our economy.”
[...]
“Contrary to the argument that reductions in TCE emissions will place an unfair burden on the narrow tube industry, we are seeing voluntary reductions by manufacturers in Montgomery County that can be realized within a year,” said Governor Rendell. “That calls into question the EPA’s evaluation of the facts about this industry. For the sake of our residents, I am asking the EPA to act quickly in reviewing our objections and reverse this decision.”
The question Rendell raises is an interesting one: Should voluntary efforts by a few undermine regulatory exemptions for an entire industry? We wonder what impact, if any, Rendell’s argument may have on those organizations considering or undertaking such voluntary TCE reduction efforts (beware the law of unintended consequences).
At the same time, we wonder if perhaps Rendell is avoiding a more obvious question: Why have ANY exemptions from health-protective standards like these? It just seems like obvious nonsense to us that any organization, let alone the most powerful polluters in the world, should get a free pass from keeping people safer because it is hard or expensive for their business. More on this another time…
For now, bravo to Governor Rendell for taking action to keep his citizens safe.
If investigative reporter Jon Goodman is right, the citizens of Pennsylvania have a disturbing public health problem on their hands.
Back in April, the EPA promulgated new, more stringent emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants. Trichloroethylene (TCE) was one of the pollutants impacted by these new standards*.
At the same time, EPA carved out exemptions in the new standards allowing certain industries to simply opt out of compliance because of “technological challenges and high costs.” The narrow tube industry was one of these industries**. Hence, the narrow tube industry was exempted from reducing its TCE emissions.
This exemption did not sit well with the Board of Supervisors in Lower Providence, Pennsylvania. Lower Providence includes the towns of Collegeville and Trappe, both ranked as having higher TCE levels in their ambient air than most towns in the state…and both happen to be home to narrow tube manufacturers who emit lots of TCE. Today, in a strong rebuke, the Board unanimously passed a resolution opposing the EPA’s exemption.
At this time, it is unclear what impact this will have on the narrow tube manufacturers TCE emissions in Collegeville and Trappe.
–
* We owe readers more detail on this. As with other things we’re backed up on, it’s coming. Swear.
** EPA received significant comments on the proposed standards from four industry sectors: the aerospace manufacture and maintenance industry, the narrow tubing manufacturing industry, industries that use continuous web cleaning machines, and a major military equipment maintenance facility. These industries commented that they would face serious technological challenges and high costs if the proposal were finalized. All four were granted exemptions.
From their website (English, French):
OUR MISSION
The gravity of the situation necessitates, in our opinion, constant and rigorous attention to this matter, so we have taken on the task of representing the citizens in everything, big and small, that touches the contamination file. To do this we have a seat on the Follow-up Committee put into place by the municipality and we are in contact with the Québec Public Health Department and the Ministry of the Environment so as to ensure the most adequate solutions. The citizens of Shannon are at the heart of our preoccupations, we believe it is essential that all citizens be informed.
OUR OBJECTIVES
- To ensure regular surveillance of all the filter systems put in place at the homes with contamination problems.
- To see to it that all the citizens on the south side benefit from a water test and that rigorous surveillance is assured on the north side of the municipality.
- To find answers so that residents who wish to take advantage of medical support have ready access to adequate resources.
- To see that the Committee be informed of all the steps that are taken at the environmental level.
- To see to it that the aqueduct system be installed as quickly as possible without entailing any additional cost to residents.
Victor, NY resident Michael Barry has created a Public Awareness Web Page focused on emerging contamination issues in Victor, NY. It contains links to local news and information regarding recently-highlighted trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination in and around Victor. They have kindly provided a link to this blog as an informational resource (thank you).
They also document the formation of a local task force established in response to local concerns. From the minutes of the first task force meeting, held April 1, 2007, the task force’s stated mission is:
To investigate the contamination in our community, the effects of the contamination from a health and economic standpoint and to educate the community on our findings. Finally, to work with Town, County, State and Federal officials and agencies to ensure that the community is well represented.
If you are looking for more information or would like to get involved in Victor, be sure to check it out.
To Michael, folks visiting us via his website, and all others who have arrived at our blog while looking for information about TCE and Victor, Welcome. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to be helpful.
On January 19, 2007, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection released the Collegeville Area Air Monitoring Report (PDF, 592K). Among the highlights of the report was the following finding which put the Collegeville/Trappe community on alert:
The annual average TCE concentrations in 2005 at the Trappe and Evansburg sites were 0.26 ppbv and 0.14 ppbv, respectively. In comparison, most other Pennsylvania sites in 2005 were near or below the 0.04 ppbv detection limit. The excess lifetime cancer risk due to TCE in 2005 was 1.60 in 10,000 at the Trappe site and 0.88 in 10,000 at the Evansburg site.
We’ve realized recently that a number of readers have arrived here in search of more information about TCE in (or because of) Collegeville and Trappe, PA. Through some very minor sleuthing, we’ve realized that at least 3 websites have emerged that are devoted to monitoring the local issue. They are great resources where folks can learn a lot more. And they’ve been kind enough to mention or link to this blog (thank you), sending a number of new readers our way.
- Talk of the Town: Investigative reporter Jon Goodman’s blog, where, “At great risk he has sought to reveal the problem, the cause and the solution.”
- Collegeville TCE Watch: Run by A Concerned Citizen who “decided to setup this blog which will be devoted to gathering information about this important issue, and getting our government representatives to fix this problem quickly.”
Concerned Citizens of Collegeville, PA: A Yahoo Groups group run by Liz D. from Trappe. She writes: I envision this site to be a place where everyone can post and read information and share their thoughts and ideas about the air quality problem in our area. A place to discuss what they’ve read in the paper, what public officials have told them and what they’ve heard at public meetings they have attended. It is also a place to discuss what progress, if any, has been made and what we can do as a community to make sure that the air quality in Collegeville/Trappe improves for us and our children.
To all who arrived here from those sites above, and to all others in search of info because of or regarding Collegeville/Trappe, welcome. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to be helpful.
According to the East Valley Tribune (Scottsdale, AZ), a former Scottsdale resident petitioned the ATSDR to determine if cancer rates in the area are elevated:
“Those of us who were developing children in the NIBW [the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site] would like to know definitively if there is a higher rate of cancer among our population,” Oberlender wrote in a request to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The petition, submitted in January, is being reviewed to determine if more evidence is needed, said Charles Green, a disease registry spokesman. A response is expected in early April.
The Superfund site is 13-square-mile area in Scottsdale and Tempe. It is bounded roughly by the Salt River on the south, Chaparral Road on the north, Scottsdale Road on the west and Loop 101 on the east.
TCE, or trichloroethylene, was used to clean circuit boards beginning in the 1950s. It was dumped down dry wells, sewers and into leaching beds for three decades until it was discovered in 1981 in five drinking water wells that serve Scottsdale.
The wells, three of which were owned by Phoenix until Scottsdale purchased them in 1987, were closed immediately, but concentrations of TCE were as high as 390 parts per billion near the time they were shut, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The federal standard for drinking water is less than 5 parts per billion.
Four companies — Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline, Salt River Project and SMI Holding, formerly Siemens — have claimed the lion’s share of the more than $100 million in cleanup costs. Between 1981 and June 2006, an estimated 61.3 billion gallons of groundwater from the site were pumped and treated to remove an estimated 56,800 pounds of TCE.
It is expected to take 20 more years to clean up 90 percent of all the TCE in the groundwater, said Dennis Shirley, project coordinator for the companies.
[...]
Oberlender, who lives in Blacksburg, Va., particularly takes issue with a Superfund fact sheet Scottsdale posts online that says “trace” amounts of industrial chemicals, primarily TCE, were found in two of Scottsdale’s drinking water wells. Three wells owned by Phoenix that supplied water to Scottsdale residents for decades were some of the most contaminated. But the city does not reference those in its fact sheet, Oberlender said.
“Some Scottsdale residents are under the false impression that they did not drink the contaminated water because they paid their water bills to the city of Phoenix,” she said.
Read the full story here.
Last week’s Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) reported:
Members of the city’s community group on Wyle Labs lashed out at city and school officials Thursday night for not doing more to inform the public about pollution from the testing facility.
The Wyle Community Advisory Group called on Norco officials to honor a 2-year-old commitment to the Riverside County grand jury to monitor clean-up efforts at Wyle Labs and communicate with residents about it.
“It’s the city’s job to protect the public,” group Chairwoman Celeste Tittle said.
Representatives from the school district and the city have not attended an advisory group meeting for more than a year, she said.
City and school officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
People who contact the city for information about Wyle are told that it’s not a problem or that they can’t review regulatory reports, Tittle said.
“I don’t believe the school (district) has been active in getting out the information as they would like us to believe,” Tittle said.
Read the full story here.
Recently received a nice note from Lizzie Grossman, author of High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health. She sent the following invitation for TCE Blog readers:
What: A reading and discussion of “High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health,” my new book about the environmental and health impacts of the entire life-cycle of high tech electronics, just out from Island Press. (see http://www.islandpress.org)
C-Span Book TV will be coming to film, so here’s your chance to reach an audience of thousands when you ask that important question! Seriously, this is a great opportunity to help promote understanding of these issues, so come prepared to have a lively conversation.
Where & When: August 15, 7 pm, at Book Passage in San Francisco, in the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero — (415) 835-1020 for directions
Victims of TCE Exposure (VOTE) are hosting a punk rock circus (as a fundraiser) this Saturday:
PRESS RELEASE —————————————————
A FUNDRAISER CONCERT FOR VICTIMS OF TCE EXPOSURE:
SCOTT KELLOGG’S BIG
PUNK ROCK CIRCUS
SATURDAY 22 JULY 2006, 8 PM
THE TONIC LOUNGE
3100 NE SANDY BLVD
PORTLAND [OR] 97232
8 BANDS FOR 8 BUCKS!!
THE BANDS:
THE NEINS – 8 FOOT TENDER – DIRTY LOWDOWNS – MS 45 – MUDDY RIVER NIGHTMARE BAND – SK AND THE PUNKASS BITCHES – THE LEGEND OF DUTCH SAVAGE – HOWIE AND THE HOTKNIIVES
A FUNDRAISER CONCERT FOR VICTIMS OF TCE EXPOSURE … A LASTING LEGACY
A 501(c)3 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION COMMITTED TO HELPING WORKERS AND
FAMILIES GET THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT, MEDICAL INFORMATION, AND LEGAL
INFORMATION THEY NEED TO COPE WITH THE ENORMOUS ADVERSE HEALTH RISKS
OF LONG-TERM TRICHLOROETHYLENE (TCE) EXPOSURE SUFFERED IN THE HOME OR
AT THE WORKPLACE.
CONTACT:
Amanda Evans
tcein3d@yahoo.com , (503) 615-5963
VICTIMSOFTCEEXPOSURE.ORG
Lizzie Grossman tells us scary things about the environmental and public health impact of computers.
Riverkeeper describes itself as an independent, member-supported organization focused on safeguarding the ecological integrity of the Hudson River, its tributaries and the watershed of New York City (protecting the city’s drinking water supply) by tracking down and stopping polluters.
They have been involved in, and as a result have dedicated a website to the remediation and redevelopment of the former GM plant site in Sleepy Hollow (aka Lighthouse Landing).
NBC news in Baltimore (MD) reports:
Capitol Hill has become a second home to Jerry Ensminger. The retired marine drill sergeant says he’s still fighting for the rights of Americans.
Ensminger: “The Marine Corps has a motto — ‘Semper Fidelis.’ That’s Latin for always faithful.”
But Ensminger and the Marine Corps are now pitted against each other.
Ensminger: “Unfortunately, I found out not only do they not live up to their motto. They won’t take care of their own unless you force them to.”
The battle is over water — water that was contaminated at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The bad wells were shut down by early 1985. The problem came from a dry cleaning chemical called tetrachloroethylene and a metal degreaser called trichloroethylene.
Simms: “We wanted to visit Camp Lejeune. Our request was denied. The Marine Corps says the contamination has been widely publicized since 1984 when it was discovered and it’s an old story. But Ensminger and others couldn’t disagree more.”
They believe thousands of people could now be ill and Ensminger wants the Marine Corps to admit there’s a link. He’s trying to force the Corps to notify thousands of people who lived or worked at the base between 1968 and 1985. And he says the Department of Veterans Affairs should be providing health benefits to people like Nick Geiger of Baltimore.
Geiger: “I just feel like I’m getting kicked in the teeth by the government I served… They’re waiting for us to either get fed up with it and go away or gradually die off so they don’t have to pay the claims.”
Ensminger: “I swore I’m not going to let these people get away with this… When you pat me in the face with a shovel and blow taps over me. I said that’s when I’ll stop this fight or until you do what’s right.”
Read the full story here.
From the Denver Post (CO):
For the past three decades, our environmental protection system of federal laws and state enforcement has made great progress – our air is cleaner, hundreds of contaminated sites have been cleaned up, hazardous and solid waste is well managed and water quality has been improved.
But, as we look to the future, there are major changes that need to be considered if we are to continue to make progress.
[...]
In many cases, EPA oversight is based on outdated measures of what constitutes environmental success. Our national laws need to be updated to recognize this problem and reward innovation and improved performance by states.
[...]
Environmental policy is often decided in an overly politicized atmosphere through the legislative process and in appointed commissions. Industry is powerful in these forums, and typically environmental advocates are seriously under-represented. The best public policy results from good balance among the competing interests.
Read more.
4 words: GO SEE THIS MOVIE
In what may be the quote of the week, John Lynch, spokesman for the Holliston-Hopkinton Action Committee told the Holliston Zoning Board of Appeals:
“Affordable housing is like motherhood — everyone’s for it. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t unfit mothers.”
Lynch was expressing his concern over the development of a housing project on the polluted Marshall Street property.
According to the The Ithaca Journal (NY):
The Hollywood queen of environmental lawsuits, Erin Brockovich-Ellis, spoke to a full house in a sauna-like gym downtown Thursday night. Her visit coincides with a debate among some South Hill residents about whether to pursue their own environmental lawsuit.
The suit would aim to hold Emerson Power Transmission financially responsible for the impact on homeowners since contaminants originating at the plant were found in and beneath their homes. There is particular concern about a perceived drop in property values.
No lawsuit has been filed yet. Residents have not even hired a lawyer, but they are considering their options, and Brockovich-Ellis thinks the homeowners have a strong case.
“We’re not dealing with a rinky-dink amount of TCE,” she said, referencing test results for the potential carcinogen trichloroethylene found at the Emerson plant.
Brockovich-Ellis said they were some of the highest numbers she has ever seen. This is part of the reason she made the trek from her home in California to Ithaca. She thinks the case is strong enough that a law firm with which she consults, Girardi and Keese, would be willing to represent their case.
“People tend to shy away from these situations because they’re not the doctor; they’re not the lawyer,” Brockovich-Ellis said. “I try to encourage them to utilize their common sense, to listen to their gut.”
You can read the full story here.
Meantime, if “residents have not even hired a lawyer,” what the heck was this announcement about?!?
Often I’m asked why I started the TCE Blog in the first place.
Part of the reason is that my former hometown had a TCE-contaminated public water supply. Since 80% of the town was served water from the TCE-contaminated public supply wells, tens of thousands of Cheshire citizens were exposed to dangerous levels of TCE via public water for decades. Residents and workers weren’t warned at the time except for a handful of families who were given bottled water to drink because of contaminated private water supply wells. To this day, polluters have never been held accountable.
When a public health assessment in 2004 finally revealed the truth about contamination and cancer, officials not only tried to stifle more inquiry, they refused to share with residents what was known about TCE and cancer. They also didn’t bother to mention the other VOC’s (PCE, Benzene, TCA) still migrating under the town.
Without help from the town or the state, citizens like me were left to find information on our own. Though there was plenty to be found on the web, three things became abundantly clear after months of additional, independent research:
1. There appeared to be no central place for finding information about TCE, its health affects, and the impact it has on communities. Information was/is scattered about.
2. Other communities across the country were struggling to find the same information and answer the very same questions as Cheshire…also without help from their local and state officials. Very few of these communities knew about one another.
3. We were amassing so much information about TCE and its impact on communities nationwide, this information just had to be consolidated, preserved, and shared.
From this, the TCE Blog was born.
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Now, evidence suggests there is still significant VOC contamination underground in Cheshire. Astonishingly, state and local leaders/officials have refused to act.
See, I don’t just write about contaminated communities. I’m from one:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: neil fischbein [fischbein@...]
Date: May 31, 2006 9:36 PM
Subject: When are we going to meet?
To*: [Town Manager, Town Council member, State representative]
cc*: [Senator Dodd's office, Senator Lieberman's office, Governor Rell's office, Representative Amann's office, local press, etc.]
D, M, A -
For the past several years, and after having reviewed ~16,000 pages of
Cheshire documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act request to
the EPA, I have shared with town officials evidence of multiple plumes
of cancer-causing toxins under Cheshire and the current risks they may
pose to workers and residents. As you know, these cancer-causing
toxins emanate from some of the 16 EPA-identified hazardous waste
sites in Cheshire that have NEVER been fully cleaned-up. Some of
these toxic underground plumes are over 25 years old and have been
migrating all this time. As we’ve discussed many times, [state] officials
have lost track of (or simply failed to map) these toxic plumes and
have admitted to us they can’t rule out the newly understood risks
these toxins pose to human health. Now, as documented by state and
federal officials in 2004, Cheshire suffers from nation-leading cancer
rates.
These cancer-causing plumes must be found. Risks from them must be ruled out.
Do we need help from state representatives/legislators to move on this?
Do we need help from attorneys?
When are we going to finally meet to do something about this?
thanks, neil
* Actual names and email addresses have been removed to protect the innocent guilty innocent.
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